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dam-l Fwd: Taming Southeast Asia's Mekong River: A Recipe for Development or Disaster?
Taming Southeast Asia's Mekong River: A Recipe for Development or Disaster?
Posted on Tue, 10 Aug 1999 20:39:17 GMT
Written by Stephanie Kriner, Staff Writer, DisasterRelief.org
As the dawn of the 21st century nears, water is replacing oil as the
commodity deemed most important to the well-being of nations and the
resource around which future battle lines will be drawn. A perfect example
of this situation is the mighty Mekong River in Southeast Asia. Nations of
the region want to tap it, control it, and develop it; environmentalists
want to protect it; and caught in the middle is the river itself and the
millions who depend on it for their way of life.
The Mekong River originates deep within the Tibetan Plateau before spilling
2,600 miles south and east to the South China Sea. The checkered rice
fields and numerous tributaries that feed into the river are home to more
than 50 million people. It is one of the world's most sediment-rich rivers,
its contents each year adding to the vast delta stretching between
Kampuchea and Phnom Penh. The delta long has been considered the region's
rice bowl and is reponsible for half of all the rice grown in Vietnam. The
area also is home to a rich variety of fruits and vegetables.
The vast majority of the Mekong basin remains undeveloped. -- Courtesy of
Range of Vision
During the monsoon season, the Mekong floods across the delta, its waters
mixing with other tributaries to form a single, massive flood plain. The
flood-borne sediment provides the food that maintains one of the world's
most diverse fisheries, and also serves as a natural irrigation system for
rice crops. For centuries, farmers, fishermen, and others have made the
river and its vast delta their home.
But plans to develop the region are raising concerns among the locals and
throughout the region. With a rapidly growing population, the impoverished
governments of Vietnam, China, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia are eager to tap
the delta's rich resources. Dam and other water diversion projects have
been launched in recent years to provide new energy sources, control
flooding, and boost local economies. But environmentalists and others warn
that the development will come at an enormous cost: destruction of the
fisheries, damage to the environment, and an end to the way of life for
millions.
Still the benefits provide a source of hope for these cash-strapped
nations. Water diversion projects will irrigate rice fields in arid
regions, for the first time providing the opportunity to produce multiple
crops. And hydropower from dams will fuel growth in Southeast Asia's
post-Cold War era economies. More than 200 dams have been proposed for the
Mekong and its many tributaries.
But for all the rosy projections about economic growth, that same
development could spell doom for many others. Tens of thousands of families
will be forcibly relocated; fisheries will collapse as upstream access to
millions of fish is blocked; farmland will be inundated; and development
will further restrict the river, leading to potential worsening of floods.
And as the projects continue, the risk of other environmental hazards will
only compound the effects of damming the river. For example, development in
the region has made it accessible to foreign lumber, mining, and oil
companies looking to tap into new markets. Deforestation already has become
a concern in the delta.
Although fewer than 20 dams currently are, or will be, built on the river
and its tributaries, some people in the Mekong basin already feel the
effects, according to Aviva Imhof, Mekong campaigner for International
Rivers Network (IRN). In Thailand and Cambodia, fishermen have noticed a
decline in fish. And farmers in the delta have complained that salt
deposits are ruining their cropland.
Villagers along the Mekong complain that dams destroy their farmland and
fisheries. Courtesy of Range of Vision
In Cambodia, riverside peasants fear the social and cultural consequences
that a dam would bring. "I am for development but if the impact is too
great on the villages and their culture then there will be many problems,"
a Buddhist abbot in Cambodia told the Associated Press. "Even if the
government says the dam is good, I will oppose it. Nobody wants it here."
But a $4 billion dam that's being considered in Cambodia would generate
revenue for the impoverished country through the sale of electricity to
Thailand and Vietnam. And water projects in the Mekong could have other
positive consequences, according to environmentalists. Dams could be used
to decrease flooding in vulnerable areas of the Mekong where farmers lose
their homes nearly every year and reservoirs can be created to maintain
fisheries. Hydroelectric dams can even have positive environmental impacts
by decreasing the burning of fossil fuels.
Still, organizations such as the World Bank -- which has funded several
dams in China -- have used caution in supporting Mekong dam projects,
according to Rob Crooks, a senior environmental specialist with the World
Bank. After spending four years studying the potential environmental and
social impacts of the proposed Nam Theun dam in Laos, the lending
institution is still considering whether it will provide a loan guarantee
to private investors of the project. The proposed project to generate
hydropower that Laos will sell to Thailand would displace 5,000 people,
according to IRN. But the project also would give Laos, one of the poorest
countries in the world, a much needed source of income. Due to a decreased
need for power in Thailand, the project has been put on hold.
Some dam projects planned in the Mekong could displace thousands of river
dwellers. Courtesy of Range of Vision
Most conservationists have resigned themselves to the fact that the
projects are inevitable -- the Mekong simply is too valuable a resource to
ignore. Instead, they have focused their energies on counseling governments
to avoid repeating the same mistakes made by other countries. In India and
China, for example, tens of millions of people have been uprooted and their
way of life destroyed by vast riverine development efforts.
Natural resources can be managed to avoid losses while developing river
ecosystems, according to a 1996 Worldwatch Institute report. For example,
better sewage treatment and changes in industrial processes reduced the
amount of heavy metals entering the Rhine River by 90 percent since the
1970s, the report stated.
In the Mekong, steps can be taken during dam development to protect
fisheries and minimize environmental damages too, environmentalists say. At
a recent meeting, the countries of the Mekong basin themselves even said
that they must work to prevent an environmental and social disaster.
Meeting participants voiced their concerns of "water wars" as each country
siphons off more water and leaves less for those downstream.
"There needs to be an agreement among the six members of the [region] on
how to use water supplies of the Mekong River in the most profitable manner
to all parties," said Do Van Back of the Institute for International
Relations in Vietnam.
Otherwise the development of the Mekong could divert or contain too much
water and lead to widespread drought or floods, Imhof said. "Weather
patterns around the world are changing so much and that's not really being
taken into consideration with these huge projects," she said.
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Aviva Imhof
South-East Asia Campaigner
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley CA 94703 USA
Tel: + 1 510 848 1155 (ext. 312), Fax: + 1 510 848 1008
Email: aviva@irn.org, Web: http://www.irn.org
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